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Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
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Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Daniel B. Bullen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 113 | Number 1 | January 1996 | Pages 29-45
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35197
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A mathematical model to predict the cumulative failure distribution for the containment barrier system (CBS) employed in a deep geologic disposal facility is presented as a function of near-field environmental conditions expected at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. The model can address the effects of container design, areal power density, and dominant heat transfer mode on the cumulative container failure distribution. This model has been employed to describe the performance of the CBS as one part of a risk-based performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain site. The model employs Weibull and exponential distributions to describe container failures. Parameter values employed in the model are based on simple, time-dependent, mechanistic models and relevant corrosion data, which describe failure of individual components of the CBS as a function of environmental conditions. The relative importance of container design with respect to predicted container performance is demonstrated through comparison of the results for three candidate container designs. The best container performance was noted for the conduction-dominant heat transfer mode at an areal power density of 114 kW/acre for all container designs. Calculations for the titanium-clad, Alloy C-4 container design suggest that significant improvements in container performance may be achieved through the use of very high-performance alloys. The performance of the multipurpose container (MPC) design at the high areal power density (114 k W/acre) was only slightly better than the Alloy 825, single-barrier design. This was due to the potential deleterious effect of high-temperature oxidation on the carbon steel outer barrier of the MPC design.